Push type infant strollers are well known. Such strollers comprise a wheeled frame with an infant seat secured thereon. The stroller frame is provided with a raised handle configured to allow a parent, family member or other attendant to manually push the stroller along as they walk. The infant seat is typically provided with a restraint device to prevent the infant or child from accidentally falling out of the seat. Many times the stroller is provided with a canopy to shield the child from the ultraviolet rays in sunlight, as well as shield the child from an unexpected downpour. Strollers are often used to convey children who are too young to walk independently. Infants and young children have needed to be carried for as long as parents have needed to go places and such strollers ease the burden of bearing the weight of children on long or even short walks.
The first baby carriages were introduced in England in the 1700's and were designed to be pulled by dogs or Shetland ponies. Today, many varieties of strollers are available from models that permit the child to lie down to those that maintain the child in a substantially upright position. More recent times have seen the introduction of strollers that can be pulled behind bicycles. The vast majority of infant strollers are designed to be propelled by a hand wherein the attendant exerts physical effort to push the stroller carrying the infant over sometimes hilly, rough, or gravel covered terrain. It is to the improvement of such strollers and improving the lot of parents and guardians that this inventive disclosure is directed.
While conventional push type strollers fulfill their original intent, such strollers have one or more drawbacks. One drawback, as discussed above, is that the stroller must be manually pushed by the attendant to propel it from one place to another. When pushing such a stroller on a long walk, even on smooth level pavement, such a task takes its toll and eventually becomes tiring to the person pushing the stroller. The difficulty and required effort to manually push the stroller multiplies when the stroller must be pushed up a hill, along rough or grassy terrain, or when the stroller must be pushed through a patch of gravel or along a gravel path or road. Pushing a stroller for even limited distances in such terrain can be a difficult and strenuous task. Then there are the occasions when an older person and grandparent with health issues or other limitations on physical exertion desires to take the baby out in the stroller for a walk. Difficult terrains as discussed above can place undue physical burdens on elders with health issues and present a serious health risk. Additionally, younger children or people with various physical handicaps are limited in their physical capacity to push a bulky and unwieldy stroller and so would benefit from the use of a powered stroller such as disclosed herein.
Therefore, an infant stroller which is configured to overcome the drawbacks of such push type strollers as discussed above, a stroller which either propels under its own power or provides a propulsion assist so as to reduce the physical effort required to push the stroller over various terrains, such a stroller would be useful, advantageous and novel.